Friday afternoon found me at the stoplight beside the Gas Station Chicken Store. I had already been inside for scratchers. I was waiting to proceed to Country Mart for bananas, bread, sour cream, Diet Mountain Dew, and canned mushrooms. And $3 scratchers from the machines, of course!
I was behind one vehicle, a gray SUV of an odd shape, like a Land Rover. It's a long wait for the direction I was going. The main east/west road gets about 2 minutes of green light. Then the north/south direction gets an arrow for the left-turners, and a short green light for the straight-goers. This is a huge intersection. Sometimes you can only get four cars across before the light turns red. It's understandable, because the east/west road has much more traffic, and must clear the line from the other two lights on each side of the highway overpass.
Anyhoo... I was observing the traffic lights for the other directions. Saw the main ones turn red. Saw the green arrows. Then our light turned green.
THE GRAY SUV JUST SAT THERE!
The guy was gawking around. Not even distracted by his phone. Just looking over towards Dairy Queen and Hardees.
I honked T-Hoe's horn. You know. Just a tap. An attention-getter. Not laying on it in a panic like when someone needing their license revoked crosses into my lane with no indication of correcting.
The guy noticed, and pulled through the intersection with me on his tail. The light was already yellow when I passed under it.
I bore him no ill will. I just wanted him to MOVE so we didn't miss the light, and have to wait another two minutes for it to change.
Of course that gray SUV turned into Country Mart right ahead of me. He parked to the side, and I parked in the front. I waited to see what he looked like, so I could avoid him in the store, heh, heh! Besides, I was writing initials on the back of my Gas Station Chicken Store scratchers. That's so I know where my wins come from, and don't buy the same ticket next time.
He was 30-something, in a white baseball-style cap. Duly noted. When I eventually entered, he was standing in front of the cart corral (not wrestling to pull one loose!), talking to another man before shopping. I don't think he knew I was the honker.
Was that wrong of me to toot at him for not moving when the light turned green? I don't mean to seem impatient, but when it's your turn, you need to take advantage of it!
6 comments:
Definitely need to give them the horn tap. We used to live in the suburbs and one of the turn lane lights to our house was extremely short, so short that people ran the red - not just a car but maybe 3 cars at a time because any one that lived in the area knew that it was a 5 minute wait for the next green light. And if you could see the back up of cars that extended beyond the turn lane, waiting for the light to change, you can imagine how reckless some people got. It was that way for ages and then one day, it got changed (fixed?) and it was a shorter wait for the light and it stayed green longer. Then, before they built the overpass, you might get through the turn lane just in time to have to sit and wait for a 100 car train to pass and don't even get me started when it would slow down to a stop. I use to always say we lived on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. Ranee
Rae,
This intersection is just so HUGE that time must be allowed for cars to cross through it. I bet four of our Mansion would fit in that space!
Cars always run the green arrow in the lane that comes from Country Mart, and turns left to get to the highway or head out of town towards the Mansion. EVEN SCHOOL BUSES! The bus barn for the local school district is just past Country Mart. No school over there, just the buses. Of course they take longer to get moving and get through the intersection. So cars behind them (and other buses) feel entitled to proceed, even though the light turns red.
No, he wasn't paying attention. I do it all the time.
Always give the horn a tap, some people sit there daydreaming, they need to be woken up.
Kathy,
Good to know! If you do it, it must be right!
River,
Yeah. His foot could have come off the break when he nodded off!
Post a Comment